Palisade View of the Mississippi

What did the early explorers of the Mississippi Valley see? How wide and deep was the river? How did they handle bugs? Video is from an overlook on one of the trails. In our modern age of channels, levees, ballast, and all the other means of controlling the river (ha!) I can lose vision of what the river would have looked like 200 years ago. It is nice to stand at an overlook and dream.

Mississippi Palisades State Park

Went camping to MPSP last Sunday afternoon and returned home Wednesday morning. Yes, it was hot, humid, and buggy. It was also relaxing, refreshing, and renewing. There is nothing like the outdoors to bring priorities to life. The area had received over 11" of rain on the Friday before our arrival so flooding was common. It is kind of strange to drive and see whole fields buried in mud. Train cars had been swept off the track in Savanna and the bridge for cars had to closed because all ballast had been washed away and piers were twisted.

Rumors

No Child Left Behind. What a noble cause, what a grand idea, who could disagree? Every child can learn to read, write, do math and science at a proficient level on the ACT? Don't even want to waste space when the rumor mill has provided me some food for thought and for wondering why no publication ever digs into the "data" schools and the state provide. Is it accurate? Has it been manipulated? Are all schools doing the exact same thing? Who has time to check into the behind the scenes stuff when we can pick on the dumb teachers and they can't defend themselves?

Graduation rate: figured on those students who earn their credits to graduate by June 30 of the school year. What if the student takes summer school and it ends on July 6 or 7 and they get their diploma then? Rumor, some administrators count them on the next years graduating class. So if one student drops out you have one who graduated the previous summer school and that would balance that out.

Reclassification of students: who takes the PSAE? All third year high school students? All students who have earned junior status? Only those students who have taken Algebra II and Chemistry can be called juniors?? Where did this one come from? Rumor, an area district is going to this way of classifying students to keep the lower performing crowd from taking the test. I thought all students had to have their transcripts stamped that they took the PSAE, could this really be happening? Rumors.

Bottom line, the race to higher test scores must stop. There is no connection between high test scores and the ability to compete for jobs on the world stage. China and India have the future, their top 10% outnumber our entire student population. We need to teach our students how to be outstanding employees, how to think, problem solve, speak, work within a diverse group, get along well with others, we need to drop this idea that all students need four years of math and four years of English. The truth is, they don't. The life skills will be far more valuable. We have always known this but politicians like to get elected and so they get involved in things of which they have no understanding. You know, education, the economy, the budget, paying bills on time, telling the truth, working well with others, problem solve, etc. Oh, kind of looks like a list I wrote earlier in this blog.

Race to the _______________

Schools are jumping on the "Race to the Top" bandwagon. Throw out teacher tenure, fire the bums! For our particular district signing on to race to the top would have meant about $70,000 (school of 2100 students) or the same money Pepsi gives us each year to allow their machines in our school. Someone hired the "bums," someone evaluated the "bums" and allowed the "bums" to continue on and finally be granted tenure based upon an evaluation process. Seems we might want to consider who needs to be fired. By the way, what is the average administrator district tenure in Illinois?

Truly Dare to be Different

Reading the latest news regarding teacher evaluations, pay for performance, tenure, and you name it. I have a radical idea. Everyone is paid on the same scale within a district. From the superintendent to the first year teacher, all move on the same salary schedule. I have heard all administrators say there is no more important work than what goes on in the classroom; let's keep the best teachers in the classroom. All professional school employees would move to a year around schedule, all would have the same vacation time, when no students are present teachers would be free for in-services, meetings, curriculum work, data analysis, technology training, and so on. This is also when classroom teachers would plan their vacation time. Don't like that one?

Every ten years all administrators, deans, department chairs, and counselors return full-time to the classroom from whence they came. New people, new ideas, new favorite programs, new directions, lower salaries would enter and have their shot at improving the school. This would keep the people who are always telling teachers what to do in touch with the ever-changing student attitude, new technology, and new initiatives. It would also allow those who constantly criticize the administration a chance to walk in the shoes of someone else. Sorry no changing districts to avoid the ten year rule, it is ten years and out, don't care how many different schools were involved. Everyone in education needs to revisit the classroom. Oh, consultants..........you must teach full-time for four years out every ten(two years consecutive). I want someone who walks in my shoes for the entire school year demonstrating what they did and why I should use this instructional model.

Bottom line, parents and income are the best indicator of how a student will do in school. Why doesn't either political party talk about evaluating parents and publishing their scores? Failing scores for seven consecutive years and the parent must ___________________. Politicians should fill in the blank. Standardized tests measure socio-economic level and not a whole lot more. Why do you think middle and upper class schools always do better? The honest truth, parents and life opportunities. Neither political party will touch the real issue of American education when it is so easy to beat up the defenseless teacher.

Thoughts

We live in the post-modern era. Many of our young people are taught by those who have no definite moral compass. No God. We are only a product of our heredity and environment. The Enlightenment philosophers began the journey and it has continued with minor impediments ever since. Technology of the last fifty years has really picked up the pace with which the antitheistic philosophies have spread. While the antitheist picks upon those of Christian faith for their attacks on their fellow man in the crusades, a survivor of Auschwitz, Viktor Frankl, gives an interesting response on how Auschwitz happened.

"If we present man with a concept of man which is not true, we may well corrupt him. When we present him as an automaton of reflexes, as a mind machine, as a bundle of instincts, as a pawn of drive and reactions, as a mere product of heredity and environment, we feed the nihilism to which modern man is, in any case, prone. I became acquainted with the last stage of corruption in my second concentration camp, Auschwitz. The gas chambers of Auschwitz were the ultimate consequence of the theory that man is nothing but the product of heredity and environment--or, as the Nazis liked to say, "of blood and soil." I am absolutely convinced that the gas chambers of Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Maidanek were ultimately prepared not in some ministry or other in Berlin, but rather at the desks and in lecture halls of nihilistic scientists and philosophers."

Nietzsche and Kant have had to give an account to the Creator they denied. Yet today, we seem to be bent upon removing every vestige of religious teaching from the public eye. There is no historic evidence that says antitheism has a better track record for moral behavior than religious belief. An issue with antitheism is that it encourages immoral behavior for many by denial of any "Supreme Being." Humans have never done very well with the freedom they seem to so desire. I don't deny that some people of faith don't always do well demonstrating their faith but the same is true for those who claim antitheism as their faith. At least my faith teaches me what behavior is appropriate and what is inappropriate. Where does the antitheist learn these freedoms and limits?